Mar 28, 2018 Planning and Zoning Commission on 2018-03-28 4:00 PM - Special Called

and Zoning Commission special call meeting for March the 28 th 2018. This meeting I assume has been duly posted and we do have a qu orum present and so at this time I will kick us off and I'm gonna turn it over to Richard to run us through the presentation of the update on the Denton code 2030. I'll be brief and and turn most of it over to our consultant Clarion. As you know they've been involved in updating our DDC. We're now into module 2. This is the second out of the third if you recall module module module I've said it a number of times today. Modular 1 was the zoning districts. This is really the administrative procedures as well as you know application types how those will be processed and then module 3 which will be coming up next month are the development standards. So with that I'll turn it over I think Tariq will be giving us. Thank you very much chairman members of the Commission good to be back here. Repeat performance for several of you so we'll try to switch it up and keep it fun and we are gonna have fun because we're talking about administration and procedures. It's exciting stuff actually it's some of the biggest problems that we have heard about the current system in Denton has to do with how things are approved or not approved in some cases. So we have made a lot of changes and want to walk through what some of those are. First we're gonna give you a quick update on just what we are up to. Where are we in the overall scheme of the project for updating the DDC. We'll spend the bulk of the time talking about the procedures as I said and then what's coming down the road. There are a lot of moving parts right now some of which Clarion is working on some of which the city staff is working on and they all need to be integrated together to work seamlessly by the time the new code is adopted. So we'll tee up those conversations for you and then answer any questions you have. I think we have until about six o'clock but I know our public open house starts at six o'clock so we'll probably need to shift over to the chambers with 10 or 15 minutes before then. So we'll keep an eye on time. My name is Tarek Wafai. I'm a principal with the firm joined by my colleagues today Matt Goble and Jim Spung. You probably most of you probably have met them at some point. We are planners and attorneys and designers. I'm not an attorney. Matt is. Jim is a planner as well. We do zoning codes all over the country. We've done a lot of work right here in Texas. Matt is from Texas. It means a lot to him to be working here. So this is our bread and butter. This is what we're good at. This is what we enjoy doing. So the main goal of the project there are several of them. One was to make the code just a more user-friendly document. First of all you have two different codes. One that needs to be repealed and one that is the current DDC. We can make it a lot more user-friendly just by clar ifying that the old DDC no longer exists. We've also included tables, graphics, images, things that really spell out what we mean when we have a standard written in text. Be clear and concise. Include and clarify the approval criteria. We'll talk a little bit about that today rather than just say you have to get approved. Well what is that decision-making body looking at when they either approve approve with conditions or deny a project? First and foremost implement the Denton plan 2030. This is a recent adoption of your new plan a couple of years ago. A lot of good policy direction in there accompanied by a future land use map which showed the direction of the community. That is our direction. That is our roadmap for implementation. The plan said here's who we want to be in the future. Now it's with the districts and uses we tried to align that new lineup of districts with the future land use designations. With the procedures it's improving governance. A lot of the things from your plan that talked about that we have included in this next module. And then also to align with state statutory requirements. Texas local government code has its own, gives the authority to cities and counties in Texas for some things and we need to make sure that we're not crosswise with those especially when it relates to the procedures. If you had any chance to spend with the subdivision procedures especially we had to strip out a lot of things that were just inconsistent with Texas local government code. So in drafting the new DDC a couple of slides on this. You remember the districts and uses that's what we came here to talk to you all about last summer. That is the the basis for a zoning code. What can I do on my property? How big can my building be? How far from the street? Which districts can I operate a certain use in the city? Today we're going to spend the time talking about that second piece administration and procedures. How do I get a project approved here? What types of things are evaluated by the Planning Commission? What types of things are evaluated by staff and the City Council? And are there exceptions to those rules? And we've got several new things to talk about today as well. Finally we'll come back actually in less than a month from now we'll be back to talk to you about the quality standards, the development standards, the third and final piece of the DDC that really raises the bar for development. Things that you all see around the city that you like we have codified those things for landscaping and parking and building design. So that is that's a fun piece to talk about as well. And the way we draft the code rather than taking your current 24 sub chapters and jumbling them up and coming with in front of you with something different we've done it in modules. The first piece there's a staff draft. Staff reviews it. Richard and Scott have been reviewing our most recent drafts as well as a number of individuals from the engineering department and all of the planners have been involved. Giving us the technical details what's it going to take to make sure that it works for Denton staff. They give us all of their comments and then we turn around a public draft and that is what was distributed to you all. That is what we will present to the public this evening as well. We've gotten a lot of comments on that first module. We've gotten a lot of comments so far on the second module and we expect to see a lot of comments on the quality standards. We'll take all of those into one table or one document and try to address as many of those as we can and turn those into a consolidated draft. That's an important piece and you'll see that on the right hand side of the screen. Later this spring probably early June you'll be presented with all three modules in one document. Now you can piece together how the districts and uses relate to the development quality standards. I can do this use but how much parking do I need and who do I need to see for an approval. We'll knit those all together in one document and that is the document that will be ultimately presented for adoption both to the Planning Commission and City Council. So a lot of work to go but we've done an awful lot of work thus far and we're moving on a very quick pace and again we'll be back next month to talk about that third piece. So again I mentioned you have 23 or 24 sub chapters in your current DDC. We have gotten that down to eight sub chapters. We think that's a good improvement. If you were to just open up the table of contents alone we've made a big improvement. It's easy to find material related to development in Denton now under this new structure. Today we're going to focus on really the first two sub chapters general provisions and the administration and procedures. So let's dive right in. In addition to the overall project goals this module in particular has goals that are specific to it some of them which overlap but first and foremost align with state law. One example specialist exceptions. The city attorney noted that hey we really don't have that authority with the current ordinance in our city to be doing special exceptions and so we've stripped that out. Making sure that we have public hearings for the types of applications that require them pursuant to state law. So that is an important first step that we take when drafting a code but also to streamline the process and when we say streamlining the process get rid of a lot of the dreck. Right now you have a lot of things that are in the code that simply or should not be located within the code. Like how many copies of a document do I need to submit when I submit my application. That can just be outside in a separate manual. Streamlining the procedures also means delegating a lot of decision-making authority to staff rather than having an alternative development plan procedure. We've introduced some other tools that we think can avoid that lengthy process and still offers a lot of flexibility for development. So we will talk more about that in the second half of the presentation. I mentioned this third and final bullet point. Engineering standards, submittal requirements, application requirements, some things just should not be in your code. For one you can update those on a more regular basis without requiring a full code amendment that requires public hearings and council approval. So we have noted those things. If you read the footnotes in the commentary you will see lots of references to outside manuals. Staff is working on criteria manuals right now. Several of them have already been completed and are up on the city's website. Some of them are still underway. It's our job to work closely with staff to make sure that we haven't left anything out and that there's a home for all of the things that are important to development. So let's dive right into the details if we could. Subchapter 1, general standards. Not always the sexiest part of a zoning code to review but this is really important for the attorneys especially. What is the applicability of the DDC? What is the jurisdiction of the DDC? How is the DDC enforced? How do we handle violations and penalties and remedies for such violations? In addition, how do we treat both nonconformities, buildings, structures, uses that were established legally at some point but because of the new DDC or the current DDC no longer comply with those regulations. We have really clarified how those properties would be treated in the future. Not a lot of changes to those from your current DDC to the new but again clarifying what happens in those cases. Also transitioning from the prior regulations, your current DDC to the new proposed DDC. What happens if somebody submits an application under the current DDC? Do they have the option to be evaluated under the new DDC once adopted? And the answer is yes, they do. Also, how we, I think I mentioned how if something was a violation today in the current DDC, in the new DDC that would also be treated as a violation unless what we have drafted, what is adopted ends up bringing that property into compliance. So actually I'm gonna pause there. Are there any questions about the overall project overview, the process that we're using to bring this forward or just the general standards that first subchapter one before we dive into the procedures? I have a question. Commissioner Sanchez. When you, I guess when you're going through it, can we just interject if we have a question or do my, I had a couple of questions but I kind of wrote them down but I think you answered them later. How does this procedure gonna work? Well let me pause and ask for a clarification from staff. Is this being tele vised? Do the guys in the back need to know who's speaking or can we suspend the rules and do more of a free-for-all? I know that's the issue is who's making the comments for minutes. So question. I'll say that legally we probably ought to recognize speakers. Okay. Commissioner Sanchez. All right. Well I wanted to find out first if we could ask questions. When you were talking about state making compliance with it with the state, does that mean, I guess my question is if there's a developer and he comes and he comes to and asks he's gonna build something and he needs to know okay this is the city procedures, will he also be at that point told you also have to follow these state procedures so you're in compliance or does he have to go out to the state or some other agency to find out if there's other requirements? I understand your question. Most of the time where we have updated the DDC to align with state statutes, we just recite the same text required by state statute so we have fixed your current DDC to align with what the state statute says. There are however cross references provided in the document that say pursuant to state statute and we even give specific references to the local government code. Still in most cases the city is not going to tell you oh you better go read the state law. They're gonna know that your application has to rely on compliance with those state statutes in addition to what's in the DDC. So go ahead. If I might just maybe add a piece to that that ultimately the task or the charge part of the charge was to take our our development code and refine it to where it is we were consistent with state law and and that's the reference that he's speaking to. Whenever it is that a contractor is proposing to do something we're gonna answer every possible question that we can. There are elements i.e. if someone is doing work on a text dot right- of-way that they're gonna have to deal with that authority and work through text dot so there are gonna be times that someone's gonna have to deal with the state of Texas or the federal government on a project if it has to do with aviation but for the most part this document is gonna be consistent with state law with the exception of any nuances that council puts into it if that helps answer the question. Yeah I was just concerned about small builders you know and what they they might face if they have to deal with state regulations and not and not and they're not aware of it so that's I just want to make a comment on that. Well it it's a really good question and I'll talk later in the presentation about some of the improvements that we've made to the code in this draft to make it a lot easier especially for the smaller small town developer the folks the mom and pop developers who are not doing this all over the country or or even frequently in Denton. The main philosophy was let's make this easier on people where we can without giving away the farm for city benefits as well. Any other questions at this stage? Okay go the next. Okay so I promised fun now we'll get into it the administration and procedures. This the bullets you see here is the basic organization of this subchapter 2 so these are the sections within subchapter 2. We start with just a general purpose and organization here's how we laid out the subchapter and then we get into a summary table I'm gonna show you that table it's a very useful tool that we think provides a lot of clarity and then we'll get into some of these in more detail than others with good examples that we think will be interesting to you all. Let's start with the table so this is near the beginning of subchapter 2. This is a basic summary of all of the development application types that you might see before the Planning Commission, before staff, before City Council. Along the left hand side are those specific application types starting with site plan review. This is a great example where it's not very clear in your current regulations what the requirements are for site plan review. Most of those requirements in fact live outside of the DDC so you'd really have to be pretty savvy especially if you were an out-of-towner or a first-time developer to understand what those requirements are. We have developed a specific procedure for that and as you move across the page for each application type it shows you is a neighborhood meeting recommended for that application. Do we have to notice the public for this type of application? Do I have to sit down and have a pre-application conference with staff where we learn more about the procedures and then ultimately who is the decision-making body for that type so looking at site plan review. City staff there's a D in that cell they are the decision-making authority for that type of application and the R means review so your development advisory committee is going to review them . Staff makes the final decision. You'll see brackets and carrots here those having to refer to public meetings, public hearings that are required and the A's having to do with the appeal authority. So appeals a very important feature of this draft does not mean you just didn't like the decision that was made by the applicable decision-making body. It means there was an error in the application of the code. There was a mistake somewhere by that decision-making body and so we are appealing based on that decision and we've we've included those in this table. So a lot of information that was in lengthy paragraphs of text all summarized in this one table. This is half of it. The next half you'll see we have plan and DDC amendments things like amending the zoning map, rezoning the applications, amending the comprehensive plan so if you want to do a future land use designation revision there's a process for that as well . Flexibility and relief that's really the focus of this project. When we were hired to do this project we need to be more flexible where we can for infill and redevelopment a lot of the things that you'll probably see in Denton over the next 10, 15, 20 years. We shouldn't have to ask for a variance or an alternative development plan every time we need a little bit of flexibility. So we 've got some additional procedures here. We'll walk you through this new minor modification procedure in greater detail and we think that's one way to prevent so many negotiated developments here in Denton. So if you as a Planning Commission I know with module one we encouraged you all to spend a lot of time with the use table because that was our summary of what you can do with your property and where you could do that. This is a great table for the Planning Commission even after we leave to spend time at this table and say is this really the appropriate type of application to be heard by staff Planning Commission. This is a good use of your time to spend talking about. The next section is really just provides the overview of who the decision-making bodies are in the city. City Council, Planning and Zoning Commission, you know what you all do, you know your charge, what should the ZBA be doing, what is the the purview of the Historic Landmark Commission and in city staff as well. What is the Planning Director's job and what types of bylaws are there for all of these different approval bodies. The one I'll point out here is the Development Advisory Committee currently known as your Development Review Committee, the DRC. That has been somewhat of a vague process and we've heard a lot of inconsistent remarks about the DRC and whether or not that's been successful or unsuccessful but we did know that we needed to provide more clarity for who that body is, what is their role in reviewing development applications and so we have been more thorough about that with this draft DDC. Section 2.4, the common review procedures. This is a new concept in at least as far as the drafting goes for the DDC . Right now you've got lots of different types of application types spelled out from preliminary plats, final plats, development plats, not your site plan procedures but specific use permits and under each of those application types you describe the pre-application conference requirements. You describe noticing for the public hearings, you describe that decision-making process. We have taken all of those points that were really some variation of the same thing and we just say it once right up front in the common review procedures. Most of these application or most of these steps in the common review procedures apply to most application types in the city so we say it once and we 've been pretty clear about what those steps should entail. This helps you keep the code shorter for one. It also prevents you from running into inconsistencies as you update the code over time so when you say it only one time and you make a revision you know you have captured that without creating a conflict. So quickly looking at this this table, the graphic at the bottom, this first step pre-application activities. What do I need to do before I even submit an application? I sit down with staff. What type of materials do I need to present to them to be ready for that meeting and what should I expect to happen at that meeting? That is all spelled out in step one. Step two, how do I submit my application and what types of rights do I get from submitting that application? How soon should I expect to hear back from the city and what is my next step in terms of review and evaluation? Step three, the staff review and action. For some project types, staff will be the review body and they will evaluate it and they will prepare a staff report and make a recommendation but they're not the final decision-making body. When it goes beyond staff to Planning and Zoning Commission or City Council, you go into steps four and five, sending out notice, scheduling public hearings. These are all laid out pretty clearly in the common review procedures and then finally step six, what happens after I get approval of a project? Does that application expire? Does my approval expire over time? Are there other things I need to do in terms of recording the document or what if I wanted to modify a site plan for example? That's all spelled out in that sixth step and this is important because now as we walk through those different categories of application types, development permits, subdivision, DDC amendments, flexibility and relief procedures, we refer back to that diagram and identify the steps that are required in relation to that specific application type. So let's start with the first category, development permits and procedures . These are site plans, specific use permits, temporary use permits, change of use permit which is new and I'll talk about what we are proposing there and then gas well development site plans which we are not touching by the way . We're not amending the gas well development procedures. We're carrying those forward as is. So starting with site plan, here's an example of how we relate back to the common review procedures. It was important to codify and simplify those procedures because most of it again lived outside of the current DDC and then clarify what if I want to make an amendment to a site plan? How do I go through that process? You'll see here that yes you need a pre-application conference. We give extra detail for each specific application type. You need that conference. You submit your application to the director. It 's reviewed and decided on by the director. Steps four and five don't apply then. There is no public hearing aspect of that type of project but your site plan expires if you're not doing any activity on the site within two years of that approval. So that's one example. Now some changes that we proposed are the thresholds for site plan approval. When does this application type apply to me as a property owner? If you're doing new construction, site plan is always required. If you're reconstructing after you've demolished the building, well that's the same thing as new construction. If you're expanding existing residential or mixed-use or non-residential, 10 dwelling units or 10%, 2,000 square feet for mixed use or 10 dwelling units or 10%, and then for non-residential expansion, 2,000 square feet or 20% of the total square footage. Commissioner Smith . Thank you Chair. Voluntary being the word up there. So take a natural disaster for example, like something on the square that happened out there and that might be different because it's a historical preservation overlay but we had a building that burned down there that completely destroyed it. What's the line drawn between voluntary and voluntary? What's the definition on that? That's a good question. This is not intended to apply to natural disaster or hazards caused that are not because of the applicant's intention. Thank you. So tornado, no that's not voluntary demolition. So these are new thresholds. Right now, if you don't meet these thresholds, you're expanding your existing residential building or mixed-use or non-resident ial building and it's under these thresholds, that doesn't mean you don't need a permit. It just means you go straight up for your building permit at that point. There's no need to have a specific process from the land use perspective. You just go pull your building permit. The building division will make sure that it complies with existing zoning regulations and that's how they work together with the Planning Department. Change of use permit, this is really a certificate of use or certificate of zoning compliance. This is a really important feature because a lot of problems with planning agencies and city staff is we don't know what's happening to buildings after we've approved it. When tenants change over, we're not always made aware of that process and so how do we know if they even comply with the code? This gives you the opportunity to apply a certificate of use change. So if somebody's moving in to a new building, does that new use comply with the zoning requirements? Let's say I'm changing from a light manufacturing use that doesn't require a lot of parking and all of a sudden you're putting in offices into a same building. Well that's gonna require a lot more parking and there are different features and impacts from that type of a building use that the city would be concerned with or at least want to make sure that any potential impacts are addressed. So this is something that has been proposed. A lot of times people who are looking for something to do on their property just need something in writing from city staff to say can you tell me by letter that my site is in conformance with the current DDC? This is another another way for city staff to engage in that type of a conversation and make it official through this application type. Subdivision procedures, not a lot to say on this other than we have carried forward a lot of your current standards on subdivisions, made it very clear what's required for each different type, who the ultimate decision-making bodies are, and again reflecting your mostly your current subdivision requirements but also addressing some of the current inconsistencies that you had with state law and then making sure that we defined who the ultimate decision-making authority is for those. The third category was plan and DDC amendments so amending the land use designation, amending the map, the zoning map. There's lots of ways to do that. We can amend it to a base zoning district which we talked about last time we were here. We can amend it to a PD, a planned development. Right now you have overlays and planned developments and base zoning districts. We think we've landed on a good lineup of zoning districts where you will see a lot less use of that tool and we've got a couple of slides on PDs later in the presentation. There's also just amending the text of the ordinance. What if I want to change the setback of one particular zoning district? That's a text amendment to the code and that can be brought forward by the Planning Commission or by the City Council but it is an amendment to the zoning code, the DDC. This also includes annexations, not a lot of changes there. Again, that's another good example where it's important to just align the DDC with the Texas local government code as it applies to annexation. So plan development. Here's our slide to get into a little more detail there. Currently you have a lot of tools to allow flexibility for those really big projects. Think Razor Ranch and these are big and they're different and you don't really have a zoning district that addresses something that big and complex with a lot of different uses and user types. But you call them master plan communities and sometimes you have a lot of individually negotiated overlay districts that, "Hey I want to rezone my property." "Fine we'll let you rezone." "Well I also want to change the setbacks and the building height." So you've applied over time a lot of layers of band-aids over individual properties. The problem there is that there are so many at this point it is very unclear to staff or to surrounding neighborhoods what's actually allowed on that property. What's allowed on my property? There's a lot of different codes or documents that you have to track down to really understand the entitlements of individual properties in Denton. We don't think you should get rid of the plan development tool. As good of a job as we can do coming up with zoning districts and quality standards, there's going to be somebody who comes in the door six months from now with a project that we didn't think of. With a new mix of uses with a new set of impacts that you need a little bit of flexibility. We have revised it to require you know really that you're demonstrating a public benefit to the city. Fine we understand that you have something different. It's worthy of amending the standards as drafted in the DDC, but you have to document to us what type of benefit is the city getting? Are there additional amenities that are provided? Is there an affordable housing component just as an example? What types of things are you doing that are above and beyond the requirement to offset the need to amend our standards? We all agreed we're good policy direction. So the goal with the new DDC was just to really rather than rely on PDs for these tools improve the quality standards which I know you haven't seen those yet. That's next month, but because there's a lot more flexible standards and parking is a good example of that right now. Minimum parking is also the maximum parking amount. That's not very flexible. So by offering a lot more options for flexible tools it is less likely in the future that people will need to negotiate individual developments or apply conditions on particular sites. So we've introduced a new PD district same as a rezoning, but there 's a lot more detail that's required. You need to be able to demonstrate before you even submit an application what is your general concept from a bubble diagram schematic? What are you trying to do with the site? What is the phasing plan so that staff can have the ability to comment very early before you submit an application? It is a streamlined process so this can all happen a lot quicker, but again demonstrating that public benefit and not just offering PDs for everything. We have also proposed a site size requirement. Right now it's drafted at five acres to be able to apply for a rezoning to PD. We're not sure if that'll be the number that we end up with. We'd like your feedback on that at some point. There's a lot of infill opportunity in Denton and if some of the sites that would be that would need additional flexibility after you 've spent enough time with the draft maybe that requirement is adjusted either up or down. Final point I'll make here is that your existing entitlements, what happens to PDs that were already approved? Those don't go away. The new DDC does not strip those owners rights of what was established in those plan developments so those will still remain intact. Further discussion required on how we better relate that to the current DDC. A lot of PDs they give you some of the standards they might say here's the uses that are allowed, here's the setbacks and height that's required but they don't talk about parking. Well so if it's silent on that PD we're gonna be very clear that that would probably apply the new DDC standards but we need to flesh that out with our module three. The final category of procedure types is flexibility and relief again one of the major focuses of this project. Your variance applications not a lot of changes there these are based on hardships things that were not really caused by the applicant. You've got a specific feature of the site that's really different from other similar sized properties where you need a variance for it to mitigate a certain condition. This new tool a minor modification this is an administrative tool mostly an administrative tool where in a site plan as an example if I just need a little flexibility to adjust the setback or to adjust the required parking you now have that as a tool in your toolkit to say yeah that makes sense there's an added benefit to the city or this is really a necessary change to comply with all of the other standards in the DDC director has the authority to to apply those. Now it's not limited to just the director if you were going for a specific use permit for example that requires a public hearing and so at that public hearing that same decision-making body would also make the decision on a minor modification in that case. I'll go into more detail on that one we've got appeals of administrative decisions any decision that is made at the staff level whether it's a interpretation of use or classification of a use that is not currently listed in your code up to approval or denial of a site plan application anything made at the staff level those can be appealed to the ZBA and so we've spelled out a procedure for that and then the alternative ESA plan this is a separate process right now that's been going on you all are aware that this is underway as soon as that is ready for public distribution that is something that will ultimately be folded into the DDC but Clarion is involved in reviewing those drafts and we just want to make sure that it is aligned and consistent with all of the other development quality standards that are also underway but that you will likely not see that portion in the next draft and will come later this spring with the consolidated draft more detail on the minor modifications right now there are a lot of applications that require this alternative development plan which has to be negotiated I want to adjust the parking I want to move the dumpster to a different location I want to do something different with my building design this allows a much simpler procedure for making those decisions but not all things could be adjusted using this new procedure and we've listed those below you can't change the density or the use of a project that would not be an appropriate administrative tool you can't deviate from use specific standards things that are really established to protect neighborhoods or specific environmental features and you can't use it to get out of or modify public improvements that are required with with a new development we put this into a table we like tables I think that's obvious at this point we hope you do too a lot of things you can do with this minor modification tool adjusting the lot area and lot coverage that might apply at the subdivision stage of development setbacks and building standards like height and minimum unit sizes number of required parking spaces the amount of minimum landscaping required you want to have that flexibility especially for infill properties especially for really challenging sites throughout the city Commissioner Roseau thank you chair we talked briefly about this this morning but I wanted to ask a follow-up question how what's the organic process to nail down those numbers are we looking at like past cases and seeing like on an aggregate people are asking for variances of 10% that seem that those all pass but when we get into a variance of 20% then we get some pushback or how how's the best way to instead of just like it feels right how how can this Commission and others know how to really get down to where those numbers need to be finalized I'll give you a multi pronged response one is I think looking at past cases of how things were adjusted either through the ADP or through you know waivers or negotiated development or through variances those are all based on your current DDC so it's kind of comparing apples to oranges so I would not recommend that we just look at those past applications say all right that's basically how much they had to vary we need to base it on the new standards that are being presented and again because they're a lot more flexible landscaping based on point system now new parking systems that get away from that min- max approach they're more flexible in nature so part of it has to be relying on a starting point for discussion and that's what we've proposed here it's not a science to it quite honestly it's more of an art and we need to think about all right 10% is fairly modest fairly conservative if you think that you'd like more flexibility if you as you're reading the development standards in module 3 and you think boy that might not work for a lot of my projects then we might need to either raise or reduce these percentages a lot of getting these right is going to come after you've adopted the code quite honestly a year or two from now Scott and his team need to be very cautious and judicious about how this tool is used it should not just be the new norm that you're always 10% doesn't mean your setback is always 10% less than what the code says you need to see what types of conditions really warrant the use of this tool and if you always need more flexibility and you're not able to get there using this minor mod then maybe you adjust that through a future code amendment I hope that was helpful but a lot of it is just having discussions between now and adoption but then post adoption as well okay so that's really the highlights some of the things that we thought were some of the biggest most interesting changes from your your current DDC to what has been proposed I want to focus a little bit on what's happening next in terms of process yesterday already happened so that's done today is mostly done and that's what we're going to be up to we met with several members of City Council and the Planning Commission this morning had very thoughtful feedback that advisory committee is really going to be helpful over the next six to eight weeks they're going to be spending a lot of time going through maybe not line by line but topic by topic making sure that we've covered the basis making sure that we're following appropriate policy guidance so that by the time it gets to the adoption phase a lot of the bigger issues have been vetted the other important thing and Margie and Andrew and Larry sit on that committee is reporting back to you all the Planning Commission as a whole say here's what we talked about what do you all think and then bringing that feedback back to the committee so we've got that going on in the background staff is going to be working with them a lot over the next six weeks additional stakeholder meetings today we met with the DCDA over at the chamber heard a lot of feedback about you know actually mostly open arms about this new process they were excited to hear that we're streamlining I think it means different things to different people but generally have been pleased with some of the direction that the city has been going under over the past couple of months and what's to come out of this tonight we've got the open house not sure what to expect hopefully a good turnout given the weather but typically we do get a lot of people that show up and give us their their feedback on not only the process but what they'd like to see out of the procedures and the districts and uses I mentioned that the next part is the quality standards a lot of people find that to be the most interesting part of the code because we're talking about things that they can picture in their heads trees and landscaping and parking we'll be back on the 17th and 18th that'll be Jim and myself we'll be here to run through basically the same set of meetings that you see here another opportunity for you all to comment hopefully you'll have a chance to review the draft a little bit in advance before those meetings but we will be back to talk about those and then you'll have a better picture of how these three pieces relate to each other a big component of adopting a new DDC especially a new set of zoning districts as well how do we map this right now you've got 28 zoning districts on the books well we're going we're proposing to get that down to 14 zoning districts so there's a mapping component there that's required how do we convert zoning districts as we have proposed consolidations of some of those NR districts and our districts and other districts we've created new mixed-use districts well how do those apply to the map cities have lots of different ways of handling this process oftentimes they will just take a very light touch and say yeah we're just going to do the conversions right now from renaming one district to something else other communities really use this as an open door opportunity to say let's fix all the problems that we know exist out there let's open the door to property owners and say what do we think your zoning should actually be this what do you think let's let's really have that dialogue and make sure if we're going to go through this process of updating the map that we get it right I will tell you that most cities land somewhere in the middle and we think that's where Denton will land as well you want to take a relatively conservative approach and make sure that we've captured the new lineup of zoning districts to align with your future land use plan but also fix some of the issues one that's been brought up repeatedly over the past couple of days is a property that zoned for residential but there are so many gas wells there that you really can't do residential uses there so it probably should be zoned something else so that it's not really misclassified and I think there are several of those within the community staff has taken the first crack they have developed a draft methodology for how these conversions will take place and we have been working with them on that as well they are going to roll out a new map starting in late April and going through May to take this out to the community to really open it up hey we're telling you here's your current zoning on your property we have proposed a new zoning district and in some cases it might be more flexible I would I would guess that in most cases this will create it will really open doors for things to happen on properties rather than restrict them but that conversation needs to be had they have prepared comment cards it would be shipped out to every property owner and allow that conversation to take place and they might also be considering an opportunity to come in and if somebody wants to rezone their property rather than requiring a rez oning application that is usually fairly lengthy and tedious that might be able to be rolled into this zoning map change with the overall DDC update so a lot of discussions still yet to be had on this issue but you can see these these meetings are coming up quickly and they're going to take it around to all of the respective council districts as well we hope you all have a chance to take part in those mapping discussions I think it's really important not only for your personal property that you may may own in the city but your constituents as well this is kind of a rehashing of what we've already told you so I won't spend time there spend some time on the Denton code 2030 comm website if you're looking for a document that has been released to the public you should find it there staff has been very good about maintaining that website so that's where you can look for any future it's kind of the project home base for everything that we're doing and that is the presentation I know a lot of talking to you so now we get to open it up for conversation Commissioner Smith thank you chair you're riffing so well I don't want to interrupt you earlier we were talking about PD's you've mentioned that you know right now our current code is five acres you said that to a certain degree lessening that can be be beneficial last more flexible how much less because though and there you're right there's a lot of infill in the area that we need but we don't want to make it to where every single you know new subdivision that comes in here wants to develop you know then I even really I wouldn't call a subdivision every little new neighborhood that wants to come and develop a two or three acre tract of land basically build its own zoning handbook at that point in time does that make sense so yeah it does what what what what level of minimum do you expect if we don't have a solid number right now what level of minimum do you would you would you recommend or would you see I'm not I'm not certain I wouldn't venture into a specific number have you seen other communities do this is a starting point I think we'll have to see what comes through the comments on the third and final module quite honestly okay that's gonna give us a better roadmap for adjusting that PD number if it looks like people are generally satisfied with the proposed parking and landscaping and building design then there's probably going to be less use of the PD tool at all if it seems like we were getting a lot of comments and boy I've got a parcel that's really unique it wouldn't meet any of these standards and there's a lot of the two to three acre folks out there they're gonna have problems with those standards maybe we would cut that back a little bit five acres may be where you stay we just don't know until we have fully vetted the code the same thing goes with the zoning map we're gonna make adjustments to the use table we 're gonna make adjustments to the lineup of zoning districts but when the map is released for public consumption that's when you really start getting feedback from the public they might say you know I'd be comfortable with that district but not if you allow this type of use in that district so a lot of the changes are gonna happen at that consolidated stage once we have fully vetted each piece I got a couple of questions I made notes on I noticed here through the administrative particularly in the appeal process there's time limits that you have to appeal decisions but I didn't notice and I may have just missed it because I read through quickly are there time limits for the city to respond take action review plans and if they don't meet those timelines it's approved as is instead of being caught in the situation of we go week after week and are there any considerations contemplated about those types of things being added to our code at this time likely not a lot of those integrated directly into the DDC those are the types of things that are developed as processes under Scott's direction processes that are documented sometimes in the administrative manual in the development criteria manuals they're important it's important to make sure that staff is keeping up their end of the bargain I will tell you that in working with Scott over the past few months we've already seen a lot of changes to how things are are handled for development in the city we expect that to be fully fleshed out in the manuals and between the DDC and those manuals there will be a very clear procedure of what to expect and should be covered at those pre-development applications as well and mr. chairman to your point yes there there absolutely will be documentation of that no different than the expectation today whether it's it's not written is that a project manager ultimately when there's a submittal placed that a project manager is reaching out within 48 hours so there should be contact from the city to the applicant to say I have your project etc etc and that's not written anywhere that's not codified codified but when we get to the administrative manual all of that be laid out so that yes we are accountable to the applicant the citizens as well as the citizens and the applicants are accountable to the city so that's great is there a mechanism that's going to be put in place that if you exceed those timelines that those things are approved or they just held up until they get looked at well I was gonna respond to the first part so generally speaking as we try to remove most timelines from the code you know those are things that you want to be able to be nimble on and respond to you know bigger projects with taking a little bit more time smaller projects move through more quickly so most communities take timelines out of their code they put them in an administrative manual some communities do make them hard and fast deadlines but most keep them advisory because they want to have that flexibility so that's just a general rule there is there are a couple of specific timelines that we did put in the draft one is application completeness you know which is Texas government code so that's the 10 business days after it's filed the director has to make a determination of completeness that one if they don't get a response about completeness within 10 days that is deemed complete so that's one of the few places where we do have a deemed complete review in there we actually have added some language here that you don't have now that you might want to take a look at this is on page 30 of the draft when you get a chance and we have clarified what happens if someone submits an application that is determined incomplete and there's actually more process here than you have now more clarity and it says if the application is determined not to be complete the director shall provide written notice to the applicant notice shall specify how it's incomplete and then the director shall provide this notice no later than the 10th business day after the application is filed then the application expires on or after the 45th day if the application filed is if the applicant doesn't provide the things that were said to be lacking in the application so there's more process there generally speaking most communities don't have deemed approvals that's not something we would recommend put in a code most communities have gotten away from that if there's ever a deemed automatic action it's a deemed denial but that's a policy decision for you all to have but we don't have anything like that in the code but this this is directly responsive to your first question so I just wanted to put that up. Okay thank you my second one is the times in the past when the city has done these you're correct these are very complicated and there's a lot of moving pieces on it is there a mechanism for and I just wrote a note on here unintended consequences or conflicts that to your point we make a large change and somebody comes forward and goes there's an issue with my project is there a mechanism in here of how that gets resolved and you're not hung up with your your project is no longer in compliance because we've had a change in standards yeah I think there there are several mechanisms that have been integrated into this draft one of those is just the minor modification tool that gives you the authority to make some adjustments without having to go through a public hearing process you realize there's something about that site that is particularly challenging and you're willing to make an adjustment because of that what you haven't seen yet is actually baked directly into the development standards like the landscaping and the parking there are escape valves there there too let's say look we know these are the standards you can come to us with an alternative approach for landscape design as an example if you're showing that you meet the intent of the code but it's got to be something different because again you have a particular site challenge if you're meeting the intent of the code you can present something that way the same for parking if you're willing to show a demand study that says something different than the requirement then you have the authority to be reviewing those things which is a more flexible approach without having to negotiate in a public forum at a public hearing you've got a lot of baked-in tools within the standards beyond that this is where those percentages come into play if if you're just asking not to play by the rules because you don 't feel like it then no that that's no let me clear up my question and what might it might be a variance for other let me clear up my question because what my concern is is that we're doing a complete rezone of the entire city yeah and we're changing the rules yeah of how zoning is the standards and the requirements people who've purchased property for people who are developing property that have begun projects whether they may have made an application or not let's say there's some of both there's pre applications and there's people who may have done applications they may have some relief as far as vesting per se but for people who've bought properties with the intention of developing under zoning codes currently in place and we change those when the city re zones the whole city now when you bring your project in you will now fall under new zoning requirements that may be different than the zoning requirements were as you purchased or in process and haven't made application and and that's where my question goes to those types of instances because it is a zoning it will have a completely it will control what can be done with that property now and so if there are unintended consequences if there are conflicts and it's greater than 10% how do those instances get resolved in a timely manner versus they fall into an administrative black hole of it's no longer compatible and now it's gonna have to be non-conforming all types of issues that may come up in those types of instances I hope that maybe clarifies what my concern is yes thank you now I better understand your question and I will say for the most part and I think I mentioned earlier there should be more opportunities rather than fewer opportunities under the new DDC but there will be instances where a site is made non-conforming we have tried to reduce the the number of times that we think that might happen that's always a question that we ask of staff if they were to suggest well let's just change that setback requirement well how many non-conformities are you going to create in doing that so that's always in the back of our minds as we're drafting I think we'll try to minimize those now is the time to get involved there is a lag period between adoption of the code and adoption of the map and the effective date of the code in the map and there there will be property owners that decide you know I actually am not satisfied with where this ended up and I'm gonna get my application in now rather than later because I want to come in under the the current DDC versus the new adopted DDC there are others that are gonna wait conversely and say alright I'm gonna wait until this is effective because I really like the new rules better than than what I have see Matt wants to jump in yeah one additional comment I didn't realize you were going down the best team road that's a category of issues that I would just say up front we need to spend more time working with the the staff and the legal staff especially in terms of incorporating into the common review procedure framework that we've got it's gonna be in there in some way I want to make sure that we do it the right way it's sometimes you know as you know is gonna be automatic for certain types of applications not for others in Colorado we have a slightly different scheme you know we actually have a you have to make an affirmative request for vested rights in certain ways and so we structure it as a discrete permit I don't think we do it that way here but we still need to talk with your legal staff about the best way to do that but if that if your question is primarily especially about the automatic approvals going down the investing road that's my response I don't know the answers I'm just yeah no it's thinking out loud that if you're doing things under current zoning and the zoning changes and it's no longer in compliance what what is your relief and if it 's ten percent that may not meet the standard and then you're put in a non-con forming or some of these other issues and so that was just a question if if there is going to be a mechanism of there's a certain amount of time to get your projects done under the old rules or the new rules or to your point it's adopted and after six months or 12 months this is it I'm just curious how that process is and and and if we get to see what that process is to evaluate it I don 't think it's an easy answer I think you've got a collection of different types of entitlements out there you may have to get by the mic the little a little snow cone like went off so I think I think it's you'll definitely have a chance to to weigh in on that strategy it'll be part of the overall kind of you know collection of things that you you ultimately recommend approval on I don 't think it's gonna make you maybe a uniform strategy for all the different entitlements that you have out there because we've been talking with staff you have a variety of things that have been approved over time and some of them may be ambiguous as to whether or not they are subject to the new code standards and so we need to work with your staff and figure out kind of the best approaches for those different things that are out there I trust you I will work through that I just want to raise those couple of points and I appreciate the feedback Commissioner Ellis thank you chair I guess going back to this question if there is a project in process and has been approved with the old code and it's not complete and and this gets approved and adopted and and has an effective date nothing does have to change on that current project though correct Commissioner Beck thank you even though the zoning has dramatically changed it's it's locked in correct well yeah the application they're gonna build single family residential but the zoning change where there's like NRM you know quite dramatic but their applications already locked in so despite the zone change ill-state correct okay well I'll ask just to clarify if there's a project in place does the zoning stay with what it is or is it going to go to the new because if the new requirements zoning wise are more string ent than the old ones you may have projects that do not meet the new zoning requirements for example let's just throw a white elephant out in the room let's say your setbacks are different you have current zoning in place we 've talked about setbacks and the setbacks change so you have projects that are being developed with certain certain setbacks but you don't have building permits being requested now so in six months twelve months building permits are requested for projects that have been developed under certain guidelines you go to pull building permit for those you look at the zoning here are the setbacks and now the setbacks are different than what the sizes were for the property the way it was originally developed that property should be evaluated based on the earlier setbacks that were in place when the complete application was filed okay even though it's two different things it's developed as a certain deal but it doesn't have a building permit pulled until a later date if I can just clarify for single-family residential at that in that particular instance there wouldn't be a site plan that's technically done really through preliminary and final plan so I guess at that point it would be guess what we look at when that final plat was approved if it was based on a current zoning district that's just something we need to work through so there's also changes to piggyback on that there's changes being talked about with places being required for two-car parking out front and two-car parking in garage for four parking places there projects in Denton that have single garages with a single parking place so somebody's developing projects for that type of product they don't haven't pulled a building permit now they come in a year from now when their development is done to pull a building permit to go build a house and they have to have four parking spaces that product cannot be built on that developed lot that was done under the old zoning I think this is part of the overall best thing conversation that we need to have with your attorney's office as well what what happens to those current types of situations I don't want to spend all of our time giving specific examples there a lot of other people here with questions I just want to throw a couple out that was the point of the question and I thought you gave a good answer but I won't make sure that there's enough detail and enough mechanisms to address very specific questions that aren't going to be 10% for car garage or for car parking to two is 50% so my question is every time in the past I've been in didn't a long time we've done major changes like this I'm sure you guys will do a great job I'm sure staff will do a great job nobody can get everything those are two small instances to throw out that may be not in consideration I think there should be some kind of a mechanism when you run into those types of things that somebody who started a project under one set of criteria doesn't get caught up in unintended consequences of what otherwise is an embraced cleanup and good change in our zoning ordinance that they go to pull a building permit and you can't build that indent anymore and they go well we have a hundred lots developed for one car garages with one parking place and you got to have four now my point in just bringing it up I would like to see is just a throw on the table there's some sort of mechanism to aid in the transition that people understand from here on out there are not be any more those types of products developed but the ones that were already started or in play can go on even if it's outside of the time frame that you're talking about yeah I've got I think there's two responses to that one is inside the code and one is outside the code inside the code I think one of the things that will need to enhance is those transitional rules that Tarek talked about because one thing we often talk about is if you've got a staggered set of approvals where later appro vals to correct early approvals I think we need to be a little bit more detailed in that section about the fact that subsequent approvals if you've already got a preliminary plot that was approved under the old code your final plot then doesn't have to comply with the new code you know that just has to comply with the prior rules and the earlier approval of the preliminary plot so we can we can clarify some of those rules and talk with you more about that I think the outside the code answer though is more important and that is that this needs to be rolled out as part of a comprehensive education effort and one of the things that should be done is training programs for the development community where you talk about hey guys this is a new system and here's some of the key differences that you should be thinking about and here's the some good examples of how you will need to be developing differently and in the future and here are the specific rules that will apply during the transition period those are just kind of key things that we can talk with your staff about kind of you know programming in to a series of educational campaigns but it 's not an on-off switch it's not just like all of a sudden you move from BDC on day one to DDC to on day two it's going to be a transition process and there's going to be an adoption date and there's going to be a lag time and then there's going to be an effective date and it's going to be up to the city to use that time effectively to have internal training sessions with staff and external training sessions with the public and to bring you all up to speed and to make sure everybody kind of understands how life changes so it's not that's not a small thing we recognize that but we've got experience kind of helping communities kind of program all those transition activities it's a really good point. Other questions? All right great well I guess we will close our presentation here at 522 and then I guess there's going to be a for those watching you will go through your presentation again it starting at 6 in council chambers and that's open to the public. The public's invited to come attend. you you you you you you you you